Thankful : Day 7

Today is am thankful for this guy :

My husband. Seth.

Today is our three year wedding anniversary!

I am thankful he popped the question.

I am thankful I said yes.

I am thankful for all the events in our lives that lead us down this road to meet each other.

I am thankful that we got to celebrate with our friends and family on this day three years ago.

I am thankful that he loves me unconditionally and supports me no matter how crazy my idea.

I am thankful he is such an amazing, caring, loving father to our son.

I am thankful he will be right there with me when I grow old.

"God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you."

I love you so much!

Happy Anniversary!

And for fun... a few of my favorite pictures!

Top : girls shoes (Converse - mine : pink, girls : black), photo booth and the car that took us to our hotel

Middle : the cake, the place cards, the girls flowers

Bottom : the reception, my flowers, the favors (lotto ticket scratchers)

November 7th is my mom's birthday.

My mom, unfortunately, passed away in 2003 from breast cancer. As soon as Seth and I got engaged I knew that I wanted my mom to be a part of our wedding. A girl needs her mom at her wedding! Together we decided that getting married on her birthday would be a great way to ensure that she was a big part of our big day. Since she couldn't be there physically, we also had a memory candle lit throughout the whole ceremony for her. And as a huge surprise, my bridesmaid, Stacy, got these beautiful little breast cancer angel pins for all of the girls to wear so my mom was close to our hearts. 

Thank you Bauman Photographers for capturing all of these wonderful moments during our wedding!

Thankful : Days 5 and 6

Day 5

Today I am thankful....SO, SO THANKFUL....that this sweet baby boy was brought into their world yesterday. His mom is my friend from college, Tara. She was my inspiration for doing thirty days of thanks and how fitting that her little boy was born in November. Calem's big brother, Declan's, birth was not easy for Tara, pretty scary in fact, and words cannot describe how thankful I am that Calem and Tara are both doing GREAT and are healthy. So blessed.

Calem Robert Maple

November 4, 2013

7 lbs. 6 oz

22.25 inches

6:14pm

Calem is one lucky boy to have such amazing parents and a wonderful big brother! Calem, Auntie Lizzy is so, so happy you are here and cannot wait to meet you and kiss you! Much love to all the Maple's and a big 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! 

xoxoxoxo

Day 6

Today I am thankful for all of the people that love us. That may sound cocky but it is not supposed to. Tomorrow (tomorrow in terms of thankful days) is a very special day for Seth and I. It is our 3 year anniversary. We were lucky enough to be surrounded by so many amazing people. Some of Seth's dad's cousins traveled from the East Coast to celebrate with us. Some of our friends came from Maryland and New Mexico and Texas. Some of our friends and family came from Orange County. But no matter where they came from, they were there because they love us and were excited for us to get married.

I am especially thankful for these people below. The people from our wedding party. They've celebrated with us, loved us, and cried with us. Some of them are family who we are lucky enough to see often and some of them are the friends that you rarely see, but when you do, you feel like you just saw them yesterday. Those friends who live far away (far, FAR away for a few) but you feel like they are close with you. Those people that you haven't know for very long but feel like you've known forever. They are the people that stood by us as we shared our love for each other and became husband and wife.

.

Thank you to Anisa, Erin, Vickie, and Stacy for standing by my side.

And thank you to Kenneth, David, Shawn, and Matt for standing by Seth's side.

We love you all! And are so thankful you said yes when we asked if you would be in our wedding party!

Thankful : Day 4

Today I am thankful for bath time.

Tonight at dinner we attempted to give Mason spaghetti. I say attempted because that's all it can be classified as. It was a MESS. And that we Seth and I trying to feed it to him from a bowl, using a spoon! Yikes. I thought the problem was that it wasn't cut small enough. Since Mason doesn't really understand the concept of spaghetti and how to eat it, I thought I would cut the pieces small and we could feed it to him from a fork. Problem was...I don't actually think he was that hungry because he kept knocking the form and spaghetti flying everywhere. I could tell Seth was getting frustrated so I told him to eat dinner and I would try. No luck for mom either. Mason was spreading around the fruit and the spaghetti droppings on his high chair tray ALL OVER and off the edge as well as banging his cup down and throwing it on the ground. I started to get a little frustrated too, but I think he is just at that stage where he throws things on the floor and then looks over the edge like "where did it go?". I try not to get frustrated because he is learning, but I also try to teach him that he can't throw his food all over and his cup on the ground. He has already cracked one cup this way and I'm sure all the rest are on their way as well.

I tried as hard as I could to get him to keep eating but then gave up. He was a MESS, the floor was a MESS, and I was a MESS also so I decided it was bath time. At this point Mason was crying because he wanted me to stop trying to get him to eat so I took the high chair tray off, cleaned him off (aka picked off 100,000 tiny spaghetti pieces from his legs), and took him upstairs for a bath. Luckily I had already taken off his pants earlier after Seth changed his diaper so it was for an easy (er) clean up.

[watching Mickey with no pants on,

and one sock on and one sock off]

I am so, so thankful that my sweet boy loves bath time so much. He went from being upset and crying one minute to being so, SO excited about taking a bath. I count my lucky stars everyday that he loves baths so much because it would be awful if it was a fight every time. I guess I have the teenage years to look forward to for that! HA!

Thankful : Day 3

I am so, so thankful that we had the opportunity to tag along to the Fenton's photo session with the amazing Jenny Mason Photography back in September. Erin had originally wanted to do the girls birthday pictures and then Jenny suggested Mason tag along to take a cousin photo like they did last year. I thought it was a great idea and was totally on board. Then I started thinking... I would LOVE a good family photo for our Christmas card (disclaimer : if you get a Christmas card from us and any of these photos look familiar, don't say I didn't warn you! lol). I asked if we could take one family photo and split the sitting fee and Erin agreed and then one thing led to another and we ended up with some AMAZING photos! I'm in love! Here are just a few...

Mason and his cousins, Addison and Emma

 

And my personal favorite...

So thankful for my little family!

xoxoxoxo

Thankful : Day 2

I am thankful for friends with kids. Correction : I am thankful for ALL my friends, all of whom I love dearly, but today in particular, I am thankful for friends with kids.

Today we went to the Oak Glen Apple Farm with Tiffany and her boyfriend, Thomas, and his kids Teagan and Colin, and Matt and Lorraine, and their kids, Lily, and Riley. Tiffany had invited us and when she asked, I was intrigued. I've never been apple picking before so I was super excited to go. I'd never even heard of it or thought of it before I moved to Southern California and saw pictures of people doing it. The place we went was a little over an hour and a half away but we met at Matt and Lorraine's house first and then carpooled with them. (Side note : before we went to their house, we made a little detour to Starbucks and I got my first red holiday cup of the season. SO HAPPY!). There are lots of apple farms in Oak Glen, but the one we went to was Riley's Apple Farm. Very fitting since we had a little one named Riley!

When we got there we found out that they were all out of u-pick apples. At first we were super bummed and thought about going somewhere else but the man that worked there said all of the farms were out of u-pick apples for the season. So, we decided to make the most of it since we were already there and I'm so happy we did because it turned out to be a great day!!

My two favorite boys!

 Walking around the apple orchard.

They had "events" that you could try.

Top left and top middle : knife throw. Only Matt tried that one.

Right side 3 pictures : Seth tomahawk throwing.

Bottom middle : the older kids holding tomahawks. (Don't worry, completely safe)

Left middle and left bottom : Seth shooting a bow and arrow.

Then it was on to the main event... making our own apple cider!

Mason had so much fun choosing the apples.

Once we picked the apples, it was time to wash them.

Then time to grate the apples!

You put some apples in the machine and turn the handle and then add more.

They fall into a bucket below.

Then you squeeze the juice out of the grated apples.

And make your gallon of cider!

 Mason love, love, LOVED the cider. 

This was his first time drinking out of a cup and he did so well! 

He couldn't get the cider in his mouth fast enough!

Overall, it was a great, great day! It would have been fun to pick apples too but we will just have to go back next year in the beginning of the season. I'm really glad we went now though because they said it normally is a 1 hour wait to make cider and we only waited 10 minutes. So next year we skip the 1 hour cider line and head straight to pick apples!

It was so fun to have a day with friends with kids. I've been wanting to join a mom's group to meet more mom's with kids to do activities with but they always meet during the week while I am at work so this was a fun surprise weekend of friends with kids that I didn't expect. Can't wait to do it again!

Thankful!

Thankful : Day 1

30 Days of Thanks

Last year I stole the wonderful idea from my amazing friend Tara and this year I think I am going to do the same. I am so thankful so often but never actually sit down and get my thanks on paper (except in the occasional thank you note) so I love the idea of sharing what I am thankful for over the course of the month.

We start off the 30 days with today's topic... manners.

Manners may seem like a no brainer to most people, 

but to some, I think they have no brain when it comes to manners. 

I would like to start off by thanking my parents for raising me right. They instilled upon me good manners and taught me how to be polite. I wish all parents were like that. These are life lessons people. It gets you further in life to be polite than it does to be rude.

Today I went to the mall to return a couple things. I returned them no problem but then I went to the Disney store to check things out since I have Mason has some gift cards. I was in the Mickey section looking at something when this little kid came by. I scooted over and kept looking at the book I had picked up when the little kid knocked like 3 things on the floor. What did the mom do? "Honey come on, it's time to go home."
And walked away.

Walked away! Left all of the things her kid knocked on the floor on the floor. No manners.

Seriously? Come on lady. Obviously your kid was too little to know that he knocked stuff on the floor but you know better. Pick the stuff up, put it away and then go home.

I picked up the stuff and put it away and then went to Gymboree where I did a little shopping since I had Mason had a gift card. I walked around and picked up a few things and then got in line. While I was looking around though there was a lady arguing with the cashier for quite a while...all while her baby screamed its head off. (That is a whole other topic that I have a different opinion on lol). Anyway, so when it was my turn to pay, all three cashiers just stood there looking at each other and trying to figure out who was going to ring me up on which register. It wasn't horribly long, but it was longer than necessary. Again, no manners. They finally decided who would help me and then she was super nice, but really? Come on now.

Thanks again mom and dad for teaching me manners and how to be polite! I am thankful!

(Disclaimer : The above post is my opinion and just my opinion. It is not meant to offend anyone, but just sharing my opinion on the topic.)

Halloween 2013 : Giraffe by day, Batman by night!

The day started off with a party at daycare. And let me tell you, Luz went all out! Seth dropped Mason off in the morning but he sent me a couple pictures and so did Luz and it looks like the kids had a great time!!! She had told me not to pack any food for Mason on Halloween because she would be feeding them. She sent me a menu of what was in store for the kids for food.

So cute! Totally Halloween themed and super creative!

 So creative with the food!

She also sent these super adorable pictures of the kids. Mason was a giraffe for the daycare party.

And made this super cute goodie bag for the kids!

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At night, we had planned to go over to Judy and George's house to go trick or treating with the family. It's our thing. We do it every year. I had these big plans of leaving work at 3:30pm, having Seth get off at 3pm and getting Mason so we would all be home around 4pm and could leave early and try to beat some traffic to Judy's. Of course plans never go as expected!

I end up leaving work at 3:45pm, not getting stuck in too much traffic since I took the streets but then needing to stop by Target to pick something up (which is never a good idea on a holiday) and then coming home. Seth basically got home when I left work and I got home an hour late. Fail. Then there was the problem of Mason being sick...he has a cold. He hasn't had a fever all week, just a cold, and didn't have a fever last night so we decided to give it a try. Plus it's Seth's mom's birthday on Halloween so I knew she would want to see Mason. He ended up doing pretty good and we did a little trick or treating (one house even gave out full sized candy bars! Score!) and Mason ate his first candy bar... a Milky Way (a fun size one). He loved it... of course! :)

Kayla - Boo (from Monsters, Inc.)

Lilah - Minnie Mouse

Addison - Wonder Woman

Emma - Super Girl

Mason - Batman

Shawn (not pictured) - Captain America

I'm kinda bummed I didn't get better pictures of Mason in his costume, but that's what happens with you put a 1 year old in a costume that is a little too big when he is fussy with a cold. Oh well. At least I got some and I have the memories forever!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!!!

(And Happy Birthday Nanny!)